Serbia in 2013

Area:

77,498 sq km (29,922 sq mi) (excluding Kosovo)

Population

(2013 est.): 7,131,000

Capital:

Belgrade

Head of state:

President Tomislav Nikolic

Head of government:

Prime Minister Ivica Dacic

On November 24, 2013, the day that construction of the Serbian leg of the South Stream gas pipeline was officially begun, a worker stands before the first section in Sajkas, Serbia, some 80 km (50 mi) north of the capital city of Belgrade.Marko Drobnjakovic/AP ImagesSerbia was hailed by the European Commission (EC) in 2013 for its efforts at meeting the criteria established for its movement toward European integration. Belgrade also improved relations with neighbouring Kosovo. Both countries agreed not to hinder each other’s efforts to achieve EU membership, and Belgrade encouraged Kosovo’s minority Serb population to participate in municipal elections in November. Serbia was also lauded for its cooperation with the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The EC determined that Serbia had sufficiently fulfilled the political conditions for the start of EU accession negotiations and set January 2014 as the target for beginning the first round of membership talks.

International observers indicated that Serbia had made progress in establishing a functional market economy, but they called for the government to adopt more structural reforms, deal more aggressively with excessive public spending, and combat corruption at all levels of government and industry. In December the government was reported to be pushing ahead with four key measures tied to budgetary and fiscal reforms in order to secure World Bankloans of some $500 million. Serbia’s minister of economy, Sasa Radulovic, called the government’s actions a way to create conditions conducive to domestic and foreign investment.

Serbia’s minister of resources, mining, and spatial planning, Milan Bacevic, estimated that the country possessed hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of natural resources and said that companies from China, Germany, and Australia were prepared to fund geological research for the exploration of gold and lithium. Foreign support for Serbia’s infrastructure projects intensified in 2013. In November the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the World Bank signed three loan agreements with Belgrade totaling €273.8 million (about $370.8 million) that were aimed at improving some 1,100 km (about 684 mi) of Serbia’s roadways. The project, expected to last five years, was aimed at promoting regional and national economic growth as well as private-sector development. Since 2001 the EBRD, the EIB, and the World Bank had invested almost €9 billion (roughly $12 billion) in infrastructure projects in Serbia.

In November work began on the Serbian portion of Russia’s South Stream pipeline. It was one of Serbia’s largest investment projects since the breakup of Yugoslavia, with costs estimated at about €2 billion ($2.6 billion). The 420-km (260-mi) natural-gas line through Serbia was scheduled for completion by 2016. Main construction on the project, which would initially employ 25,000 workers, was set to begin in February 2014. The pipeline was expected to permanently employ some 3,500 workers once it was completed. Serbia anticipated annual earnings of some €200 million ($264 million).

Serbia’s power utility, EPS, signed a $715 million agreement with China Machinery Engineering to build a 350-MW coal-fired power plant at Kostalac. The complex was projected to provide 20% of Serbia’s power supply upon its scheduled completion in 2019. In addition, the government announced the construction of some 200 small hydropower plants over the next two years. Serbia, China, and Hungary resumed talks on the modernization of the Belgrade–Budapestrailway line. The project envisioned that Serbia’s 184-km (114-mi) portion of the line could be upgraded to accommodate high-speed rail travel at a cost of some €885 million ($1.2 billion).

Economic indicators for October put the unemployment rate at 25%, with nearly 50% of those under age 25 jobless. Industrial production rose 5.2% compared with that of the same month in 2012. Annual GDP was projected to grow by about 2%. The increase was attributed to rising exports of agricultural products and Fiat automobiles. In the World Bank’s Doing Business 2014, a report on the ease of doing business in 189 economies, Serbia ranked 93rd. The 2013 Legatum Prosperity Index, which measured prosperity based on both income and well-being, ranked Serbia 76th among 142 countries, up three places from the previous year’s ranking.